After I wrote to Mary Ogilvy asking them to pay workers for the hours you spent undertaking the SIRS online training, I finally heard back from Alice, the Business Manager, and I’m totally bewildered by her response.

Alice said the online training modules are not mandatory and will only pay 3 hours of training time for workers who have completed at least 9 modules to “encourage” you to do the training.

This is her response:

“I wish to advise that Mary Ogilvy Homes has not announced or made the Alis online training modules mandatory for our staff. The Alis online training modules provide general training and guidance on the Commission’s requirements and expectations for aged care service providers. While the Commission sees these modules as useful resources, there is no requirement for the Alis modules to be considered mandatory training. Mary Ogilvy Homes has advised staff that high quality online training has been organised by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and is freely available for them to access.

As per our EA, we will pay our staff for the mandatory training time taken outside of work hours. However, to encourage our staff to do the training, we will pay 3 hours of training time for staff who will complete of at least 9 ALIS modules (Individual payment within the same pay run period on the completion).”

The reply is outrageous. Mary Ogilvy can’t have it both ways and tell you to do the training and then suddenly decide that you only have to do 9 modules, not all of them. I’m aware that many workers have completed more than 9 modules, which has taken a lot longer than 3 hours.

I’ve written back demanding that you be paid for all the modules you have completed, and I’ll update you when they come back to us.

If you have any questions, please get in touch through HACSUassist on 1300 880 032 or assist@hacsu.org.au